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Boulder church plans vote on becoming sanctuary for undocumented immigrants

By John Bear

Staff Writer

Posted:
10/27/2017 08:11:15 PM MDT

Updated:
10/28/2017 11:49:22 AM MDT

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder is located at 5001 Pennsylvania Ave. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

The congregation at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder is expected to vote on Sunday on whether to proceed with preparations to outfit itself as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants seeking to avoid deportation.

The move, however, has caused some concerns among parents of students at the Active Boulder Kids Preschool, which is housed in the same building as the church.

"We are absolutely concerned about the kids," Rev. Kelly Dignan said. "We met on Wednesday to talk about concerns and we will tell the entire congregation about those concerns, which might cause them to vote no."

She said church officials met again on Friday afternoon to discuss the matter with school administrators and similar meetings have been ongoing since summer when the plan was in it nascent stages.

Under church rules, Dignan doesn't get a vote, as only members of the congregation can vote.

Tina Davis, director of the preschool, said that officials at the school — which is not affiliated with the church — don't see any harm in the church having a sanctuary, but safety concerns exist with regard to the children.

"We don't want to draw attention," the official said. "We want our kids to be able to come and play in a calm environment where they aren't exposed to external conflict."

The numbers fluctuate daily, but as of Wednesday, Colorado currently has five people taking sanctuary inside a church or temple to avoid deportation, making it the state with the highest number of people doing so.

The sanctuary program falls under the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition, an umbrella organization of which UUCB is a part, and anyone who takes sanctuary at the church would already be involved in the coalition and be thoroughly vetted beforehand.

Dignan said that the church considers offering sanctuary to be a religious duty that springs from various religious texts but also from moments in American history, such as the Underground Railroad, when slaves who escaped their masters were funneled north, and the modern immigrant sanctuary movement, which has its roots in the 1980s.

Officials at UUCB said on Friday that they have spoken with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office about what security upgrades to the building would have to be made should the roughly 270 congregation members decide to proceed with the sanctuary plan.

A room for someone to stay would be situated in what is currently an office at the opposite end of the building from where the preschool is located and would require some additional work on the building.

"All of that would have to happen first," Dignan said.

She added during a brief tour of the church on Friday that she doesn't like the term "illegal immigrant," preferring "undocumented," which has become the standard nomenclature for a person in the United States with no legal standing.

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